November 3, 2012

Here's a useful map for those of you who are trying to picture the way the news will roll out on Tuesday night. What places will we hear from first? Where might we see surprisingly early evidence of a Romney blowout, if that's what's about to happen? The earliest sign might come from Virginia, where the polls close at 7 ET. I was imagining Pennsylvania as the possible first sign, but polls don't close there until 8, at which point we'll be seeing Michigan and Missouri. Ohio and North Carolina come in at 7:30, so the impression from Ohio will precede Pennsylvania.

Y'all are invited to my house, just a couple of miles from where the Obama family may reside after January, we hope, we hope, we hope. I'll make that sacrifice for the good of the country. Here, we'll begin getting results by 3 p.m. on Tuesday. Either way it goes, celebrating or mourning, I'll have had too much wine by 5 p.m., I'm afraid -- one peril of living in a remote time zone on an election day.

I imagine it will be similar to the WI recall elections. We'll all hear the predictions that it will be a very long night; then Ed Schultz will be forced to pack up 15 minutes after the polls close as it becomes clear his favored candidate lost.

@kcom: On the one hand, I don't think my brother's political preferences are secret. On the other hand, I don't see them coming through much in that blog entry.

The early vote totals come from New Hampshire - Dixville Notch and Hart's Location. The rule in New Hampshire, IIRC, is that polls are allowed to close early if all eligible voters have voted, and the handful of registered voters in those locations all get together to vote at once.

This morning I attended a special meeting for people who wanted to volunteer for Romney/Ryan/Allen/Cantor/Ballot Questions on election day. This is in a critical Virginia district that will set off the Northern VA liberal vote nicely.

This will involve standing out in the cold on election day with sample ballots, monitoring inside, and making calls.

Most everyone there (genders were equal) were over 55 years of age, and a few had canes.

There were not enough chairs, and the volunteers had to listen from the hall. I would guess there were at least 50 people there.

Someone asked, "How big was this meeting four years ago?" And the answer was, "There wasn't even a meeting four years ago."

Slightly off topic, but I voted this morning. Stood in line for one hour in the cold and the rain surrounded by people clutching Democratic "sample ballots."

This is the first time I have ever voted anywhere but my assigned polling place. I don't think I will ever do it again. It seems too chaotic to me, too open to mistakes. When I vote at my polling place, I walk up to the table, tell the poll worker my name, show her my driver's license, sign my name next to a copy of my signature, and get my ballot. After I vote, a poll worker stands by as I feed it into a scanner. It is very clean.

At the early voting, I had to fill out a form, then wait for a ballot that corresponds to my precinct. No one asked for proof of identity. After I voted, I put the ballot in an envelope that also had all of my person info on it - name, DOB, address, last-4 SS number digits or driver's license number - and put the envelope in a big box. The worker there said they would have to check my info against the voter rolls before scanning the ballots. Seems like there is a lot of potential for error there. Also, for malfeasance.

Our county officials say that they have been getting 1000 to 1500 early voters a day. That's a lot to process. Worries me a little, actually.

Also...I learned today that Democrats are obnoxious. They had campaign workers stationed at the entrance to the overflow parking and to the parking lot of the Elections Board building handing out their "sample ballots." And if that wasn't enough, they also had a loud speaker set up broadcasting their campaign propaganda. No Republicans in sight or sound.

As of Wednesday, they were still having trouble with the electronic voting screens in Ohio, turning Romney votes into Obama votes. The commenters that said it was a simple error forgot one thing--you have to do something to fix it. I'm sure they'll have it all worked out by this Wednesday, though.

Thanks-Jane, for voting early and for campaigning. In my super-size three-building complex, there are zero Romney supporters other than yours truly. Every-where there are re-elect Obama items. Even the concierge wears it. Very very sad.

So Sally Krisel, deputy director of elections in Hamilton County, can't seem to fix a problem that's been going on for a month (the last report of the on-going trouble was Oct. 31, 2012). And it always the same thing--Romney votes changing into Obama votes. It's great that she's aware of the problem. The next step is to fix it.

The programming--totally controled by County Election people--is what's at issue. Unless you, harrogate think there is some kind of remote-control access provided by the manufacturer. Strange we haven't heard of any Obama votes becoming Romney votes. Stop being an asshole. The fact is that if it is a simple honest error, it should have been fixed in a month. I'm thinking for every person that notices it and squeals, several people go away unaware. The bugs should been worked out between elections, with election workers doing dry runs.

Here in Swing State Central (central Iowa, that is) I'm not seeing any such thing, at least based on yard signs and personal conversations. Sure, the Obama vote isn't as bubbly and star-struck as it was 4 years ago, but trust me, it's still out there. I think it's going to be close, very close.

Intrade's daily volume is so small, the whole thing can be swayed with a couple of $Million. That may sound like a lot to you, but what do campaigns pay for for commercial time? A couple of $million thown at that may do more good that those repetitive commercials--especially with people that think it means something.

The Florida panhandle polls close at 8pm, and the networks are always reminded of that by the state authorities. But since these are conservative areas, the networks usually try to call it at 7 to depress the "redneck" vote.